Some in Lebanon report cracks in basements after 4.0 earthquake

Wednesday

Oct 17, 2012 at 3:15 AMOct 17, 2012 at 2:36 PM

From STAFF AND WIRE REPORTSnews@fosters.com

DOVER — A 4.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded in southwestern Maine early Tuesday evening, rumbling residents in New Hampshire and as far away as Massachusetts and Vermont.The U.S. Geological Survey at first estimated the 7:12 p.m. quake as a 4.6 magnitude, but later downgraded that to 4.0. The epicenter, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, is about 3 miles deep. That location is about 20 miles west of Portland.Mike Kistner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said Tuesday's earthquake was a “moderate” event, but New England only experiences moderate earthquakes once every few decades.“They're extremely rare for this region, but they can happen,” he said. Smaller earthquakes are felt roughly twice a year in the region, while some others pass by unnoticed, Kistner said.There were few reports of earthquake-related damage in New Hampshire, but across the border, some Maine residents were discovering cracks in the basements of their homes.Lebanon Rescue Assistant Chief Jason Cole said his department has heard reports of basements and foundations being damaged Lebanon, Shapleigh, Sanford, and Waterboro, Maine.Cole said his own home on Depot Road in Lebanon sustained multiple large cracks in the basement during the earthquake. One crack, he said, starts at the top of the side wall, goes down 6 feet, and continues horizontally for 36 feet along the wall. Sheet rock at his home has been damaged as well, he said.Lebanon Rescue Department crews were out on the road until about 10 p.m. checking for damage, Cole said.“I've never seen anything like this before,” he said.East Coast quakes are rarely strong enough to be felt over a wide area. A quake of magnitude 5.8 on Aug. 23, 2011, was centered in Virginia and felt all along the coast, including in New York City and Boston. Experts say the region's geology can make the effects felt in an area up to 10 times larger than quakes of similar size on the West Coast.People from around the Lebanon, Maine, area began phoning 911 to report the quake a short time after it occurred. Cole eventually sent an email to residents asking them not to call 911 unless they were reporting injuries or damage.Later Tuesday night, he told Foster's that so many residents were calling 911 in response to the earthquake that those who had pressing emergencies heard a busy signal when they dialed 911. For some, it took multiple tries to get in touch with the dispatch center.“I think most of the people dialing 911 were just scared because they didn't know what was going on,” said Cole. “Sanford dispatch center was getting hammered with calls.”He said the Emergency Management Agency has set up in Alfred Tuesday night to assess the damage caused by the earthquake.For those residents whose homes were damaged, Cole recommended that they have their buildings inspected with a professional contractor, to assess the damage and recommend further course of action. Dover City Manager Mike Joyal said the community's public safety communication center was initially flooded with phone calls reporting the event. In an email sent at 8 p.m., Joyal said there are currently no reports of damage or injury related to the earthquake, which struck about 38 miles away from Dover.“It appears that some phone and cell phone lines were inoperable for a short time after the event most likely due to the volume of calls that occurred,” Joyal wrote. “We are not expecting any issues to arise at this point, however our emergency staff remain alert in case of reports of damage or injury.Seabrook Station, the nuclear power plant on the New Hampshire coast, declared an “unusual event,” in response to the earthquake. The plant has been offline for several weeks amid a scheduled refueling outage, and was not operational at the time of the quake, spokesman Al Griffith said Tuesday night.NextEra Energy, the owner and operator of the plant, released the following statement regarding the earthquake:“At 7:20 this evening, as safety is our highest priority, by procedure, Seabrook Station declared an unusual event due to the earthquake felt throughout the region. An unusual event is the lowest of four emergency classifications. The plant has been offline in a refueling outage. There has been no impact at all to the plant from the earthquake, and our refueling maintenance activities have not been affected. We do expect to exit from the unusual event shortly.”In Waterboro, Maine, about 10 miles away from the epicenter, about 20 customers and staff at Waterboro House of Pizza ran outside when they heard a loud bang and the building shook.''It was loudest bang you ever heard in your life. We actually thought it was an explosion of some type,'' said owner Jessica Hill. ''The back door and door to the basement blew open.''In nearby Saco, Sue Hadiaris said, ''The whole house shook. It felt like a train was coming right through the house. It was very unnerving because you could feel the floor shaking. There was a queasy feeling.''Afterward, Hadiaris called her 15-year-old niece in Falmouth to make sure she was safe. ''She said, 'We can cross that off our bucket list. We've lived through an earthquake,''' Hadiaris said.Brief, but noticeable shaking was also felt in downtown Boston and the surrounding area. In Melrose, just north of Boston, Peter Ward said the shaking he felt seemed to last about four seconds.''It felt like a big gust of wind shaking the house. I don't want to overstate it, but the glass did rattle a little,'' he said.Earthquakes are rare in New England but they're not unheard of. In 2006 there was a series of earthquakes around Maine's Acadia National Park, including one with a magnitude of 4.2 that caused boulders to fall from ledges onto Acadia National Park's loop road. One of the park's trails was closed for three years because of damage from the quake.The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 in the Eastport area, near the state's eastern border with Canada, according the Weston Observatory at Boston College. With a magnitude estimated at 5.7 to 5.9, it damaged chimneys and brick walls and could be felt in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.Foster's Daily Democrat staff writers Jim Haddadin and Liz Markhlevskaya contributed to this report.